READER POLL: Employment in Northumberland

Ben O'Connell

We want to get a better picture of the nature of employment in Northumberland via this simple poll of our readers.

It comes on the back of last week's latest release of official statistics on employment and unemployment across the UK. On a regional and national level, it appears that the situation is rosy with unemployment in the North East having fallen significantly over the last year and UK unemployment at 4.3 per cent, the lowest it has been since 1975. However, critics always point to the fact that the figures may not reflect the true picture with, for example, people in employment but struggling to make ends meet on part-time or zero-hours contracts, or the claimant count being lower due to people being sanctioned/refused benefits. What is the current situation like in Northumberland?